I have an Echo 1501 bought 1988 it quit last year. Couldn't get it to do anything. Then on the first put it would have a weak spark, then nothing. Took all the covers off tried a good coil off a differnt Echo still nothing. It was a dirty nasty oiley mess. I washed it down with carbourtor cleaner put it back together with the origonal coil and it runs better then it had in year. All that oil and dirt was grounding out the spark.

Yeah, well mine starts, then craps out. I don't have any oily mess. The area around the flywheel is real clean. Hoping I get this part sometime in 2019. Not like Echo is giving the part away for free.

"I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane." -Waylon Jennings
And even worse, I don't care.

As DonF indicated - the 2 holes in the metal coil legs/fins where the screws go thru - must make good coil metal to cylinder metal contact. It's possible that enough non conductive grime is there to block current. Worth pulling coil and carb cleaning both metals and screw holes with carb cleaner. I don't hold much hope that it's the culprit.
I have revived an old Mac chainsaw coil: 2 hours in a 200* garage toaster oven.

I took the Echo 21 cc apart on an ancient Mantis. It wouldn't start until I cleaned it, rebuilt the carb twice and had the coil off a few times.Still wouldn't start until I gave it a few squirts of oil into the cylinder via the plug hole. All my efforts had washed the cylinder down and it lost compression?

I took the Echo 21 cc apart on an ancient Mantis. It wouldn't start until I cleaned it, rebuilt the carb twice and had the coil off a few times.Still wouldn't start until I gave it a few squirts of oil into the cylinder via the plug hole. All my efforts had washed the cylinder down and it lost compression?

I doubt 32:1 or 40:1 fuel mix adds any sig compression - just for lube. I bet you just finally got a proper air-fuel mix in the combustion chamber to fire. Esp if powerhead continues to run now.
Now, straight 30 wt or 90 wt gear oil will double or triple compression - will run for 5 secs or so with a lot of smoke. You can make a 40 PSI engine run for a little while. A good test is dumping a tsp of 90 wt gear oil in plug hole and re-checking compression. If much higher than baseline test, you have a ring or scored piston/cyl problem.
Or add a tsp of fuel mix to 90 wt and see if a non runner engine will run for 5 secs. If so, may be a parts machine as P, R and C will cost much more than a good used machine.

Echo was totally inept and incapable of delivering the part to SLE. I got tired of waiting for Echo to get the part in. I cancelled the order at SLE and got my money back. They were quick to refund the money to my credit card. Echo is still goofing off on getting the part, promising SLE they'd get it by Sept 22. Yeah, and pigs can fly.

I bought a new coil from a guy who had the part in hand, and got it two me in 2 days.

The new coil makes the machine run great. Started up on first pull, so I probably had a weak spark to go with it.

Glad your unit is running. Mine had no such build up to begin with.

"I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane." -Waylon Jennings
And even worse, I don't care.

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